Third quarter results

Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC)1 finished their 3rd quarter of their fiscal year in June. TLAC killed 4,302 (30%) dogs and cats so far this year, as opposed to 7,416 (46%) this time last year.

On the intake side…

Thanks to the Mission: Orange team (ASPCA, TLAC, Animal Trustees of Austin, Emancipet, and Austin Humane Society) and many others working so hard to prevent births and lower intake, intake is still down. Intake of dogs and cats this year is 14,123 compared to 15,910 last year.

No doubt, the big decrease in intake has played a large part in that reduction in kill rate.

On the outcome side…

The number of animals transferred to a rescue group increased 1,003 from 2,425 to 3,428. APA! is responsible for 1,284 of that number, which means the actual number of animals pulled from other groups decreased by 281. (TLAC cut one of their two rescue coordinator positions this year.)

Luckily, adoptions at TLAC increased by 299, making up for the difference with the rescue group transfers.

Getting to No Kill…

This is all great news! But we won’t slow down until we stop the killing of all healthy or treatable pets. There are many different interpretations of what “healthy or treatable” means, but the communities leading the way have found that at least 90% of pets entering the shelter fit into one of these two categories. Thus, communities that are considered no kill save 90% or more of the pets that enter the shelters.

In June 2009, Austin’s Animal Advisory Commission recommended to city council that the City of Austin pursue programs that will get us to a 90% save rate. This chart shows the progress in our community and the impact that APA! is making. Please check back each month to see Austin’s progress.

1 TLAC is Austin’s only kill shelter and only open intake shelter, which means they don’t turn away any animal.